Social media sites provide companies a viral entry to the consumer marketplace, as discussed in my previous blog on fandistribution. Although social media sites are a relatively new introduction the concept of brands using mascots has been around for years – the Michelin man dates back to the 1890s. This process really picked up pace in the 1950s and 60s for product based brands; this was the period when classic house hold mascots such as Tony the Tiger, Ronald McDonald and the Pillsbury Doughboy were born/created. Brand mascots tend to be usually very colourful and dynamic, making them easy to recognise, remember and identify with. Once the association is established, brand awareness will increase.

However times have changed since those ‘MadMen’ days of the 1960s when product based brands often had less than a minute window on a television commercial in order to develop their mascot’s character potential. With technological innovations nowadays, virtual services can easily create virtual brand mascots. Through platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube brands have essentially allowed unlimited space and time to develop, integrate and evolve characters. The openness and the shared based nature of these digital platforms gives the character a much LOUDER voice and open the doors for a two way conversation with the consumer. As brands naturally exploit these platforms to develop a more integrated branded communications approach they often couple the viral online campaign with more traditional television and radio slots; this encourages watchers to want to engage and learn more online about their favourite mascots.

So what are the advantages of having a brand mascot? Many online services lack the ‘touchable’ feeling a product based brand enjoys. This digital character approach allows marketeers to provide a personified face and voice for their brands, bringing it much closer to the user’s heart. Ultimately this makes the brand much more accessible by humanising their products. Consumers would much rather interact online with a cute and cuddly character than they would with a faceless corporation.

This process seems to work remarkably well typically in the grey boring faceless industries such as insurance. Across the pond motor insurance company Progressive is currently seeing a significant impact within the social media buzz through their brand mascot Flo. The quirky sales rep debuted in the company’s television commercials in 2008. Recently she has been involved in YouTube videos and social games on Facebook. Her page was initially created by a fan, though when they realised that she was attracting more attention than the company itself they quickly took over the reins. Currently on Facebook, Progressive the company has 43,000 likes – Flo, on the other hand is pushing nearly 4 million. It seems in the case of Flo that clearly people would much rather interact with this endearing woman from the TV instead of a random grey suited exec from Progressive. When it comes to social media marketing techniques, this seems a great way to engage with customers and grow new business opportunities. Over in the UK insurers also seem to be following a similar pattern with variations of similar humorous and memorable mascots. Compare the Market uses a Meerkat to great comedy effect though Go Compare have chosen a slightly different route with the frankly annoying and abrasive operatic Gio Compare – you know who I’m talking about.

What this shows us is that Facebook consumers want to actively bond with the character rather than simply interacting through the more traditional company page pumping out corporate company and product news. The characters offer a softer way to sell a product, which is essential nowadays as the more savvy consumer doesn’t like blatant selling or promotion. Mascots are also the gift that keeps on giving, they never get in trouble with the law, don’t negotiate their fees and allow digital marketing techniques to spin out a potentially endless ‘timeline’ story that was simply not possible in the past.

It instils this process when you look directly at one of the principle forums for this new type of digital communication. Twitter itself uses its famous little blue bird “Larry” to great effect. Their strategy in my opinion goes beyond being simply cute and cuddly. Larry the little blue birdy is a central theme to Twitters overall global brand campaign, with his subtle silhouette on every website link, logo and re-tweet button. A little bird is cleverly much more appealing than a plain simple company logo and it also helps increase brand awareness.

But much like when meeting an influential movie or rock star, do brands run the risk of lessening their mascot’s carefully cultured mystique and disappointing fans by finally opening their mouths in a public forum? Never before has the personality of a character had to match with the much larger overall brand direction and identity.

Here at Alchemis we don’t have any brand mascots; we certainly have a few characters though and this creative approach allows us to do what we do successfully for the last 25 years. We rely upon effective communication and intelligent targeting in order to convey a message and work hard to win our clients new business.

Think back to the last time you were recommended a pub, a restaurant or even a place to visit by a trusted friend. Did you go? What did you think? Would you recommend it to another friend? If no, could you be influenced by a free drink, a free meal or even a free flight? Air New Zealand think that you will be.

As a central theme to their most recent marketing campaign they will be offering discounts on the cost of premium economy seats with the airline. These discounts will only be available to loyal ‘fans’ of the brand who use social media sites such as Facebook to recommend Air New Zealand to their friends. This strategy is known as ‘fandistribution’ and is a relatively new phenomenon within the industry, but it is growing. Through this process ‘fans’ can therefore share brand marketing directly to an audience that trusts them and also crucially values their opinion. A new form of direct and digital peer to peer communication.

The campaign has been launched by a UK based digital marketing company called digitalanimal. Their core product and process ‘fandistribution’ is currently the market leading fan management and recommendation platform. Companies like it because it allows them to engage and interact with their customers through social media, generating brand awareness and ultimately new business. It is also often used by brands to gauge the demand for a new product or service. Consumers like the process because it incentivises them directly, offering discounts simply by allowing companies access to their own personal social network.

Already 71% of people claim reviews or opinions from family members or friends exert a ‘great deal’ of influence over them when looking to purchase a product. Social networks such as Facebook provide a virtual version of this process. For instance on Facebook currently people regularly recommend viral videos and films to each other in a process that is wholly organic, simply due to the fundamental principle that people love to share. Facebook currently has in excess of 350 million active users globally, with over 50% of these users logging into their account at least every 24 hours. As with many forms of digital marketing methods ‘fandistribution’ is easy to integrate (with a couple of simple lines of code), quick to market and will swiftly increase both the awareness of your product and brand. Used by a number of high profile clients, it is the direct-to-consumer solution for modern social media engaged advertisers.

However let’s be honest. As we all know, one-shot deals and blockbuster sales will always cheapen a brand. If done too much you actually condition loyal customers or ‘fans’ to hold off spending money with you until you offer them another ‘deal’. On the other hand it could also be viewed as a useful tool to integrate, involve, and ultimately influence users within an existing network. It is increasingly becoming essential for brands to ensure that they have an interactive presence within social media networks. The pure distribution benefits of the process are obvious when you apply the multiplier effect. On average a single Facebook user has 130 ‘friends’. The process is viral so if the user recommends the brand or service to only 4 of their friends and these 4 friends pass it on to another 4 friends then by the 8th stage of the process you’re looking at a potential audience of 66,536 users – all with exposure to the brand from a trusted ‘friend’.

Here at Alchemis we work with a broad range digital marketing agencies to win them new business clients. We welcome any comments you have about this blog or any others, I doubt we will be flying to New Zealand anytime soon.

I was truly gutted to see Duane Bryan fired from The Apprentice last night.

First and foremost because he was my guy in the sweepstake – and that’s about the fifth year in a row my candidate has not made it into the second half of the series; secondly because it was nice to see a bit of honesty in the boardroom for a change.

Dignified Duane accepted responsibility for his ideas without passing the buck, even though they ultimately cost his team the task, and it was the first time I can remember in ages that the three unlucky candidates who were brought back into the boardroom didn’t all shout over each other like a gaggle of squawking geese.

Regardless of whether Duane was ever likely to win the show, he had a lot of ideas during his five week stint and always seemed to fully immerse himself in the tasks with great enthusiasm and energy.

Now, you might wonder why I’m writing a blog about The Apprentice. Or why I have mentioned football in the title. What’s that got to do with new business or marketing (aside from the aspects of the weekly tasks that involve these disciplines)?

Well, it was because Duane said something to Dara O’Briain when he was being interviewed on You’re Fired afterwards and it struck a chord with me:

“Being an entrepreneur isn’t about being the one man at the front, it’s about how good the team works and how good the team can pull together.”

This is my tenth year at Alchemis and I know that above anything else our single biggest asset is our team. However good our data is, however sophisticated our bespoke contact management software is and however expensive the coffee we have here is (OK, I’m exaggerating about this last one, although it is pretty nice), all of it is secondary to the ability of our new business managers to actually just get on and do their job – which is ultimately ensuring our clients get a decent return on investment from attending high quality new business meetings.

Hand on heart I can say that if the skillset, dedication, motivation, camaraderie and drive between the management and staff could be transposed to a football team then they would be winning the Champions League each year.

Oh yeah, and they’d also have state of the art training facilities to hone their skills!